Crash
by EvaH2Os
Summary: A car crash introduces Doctor Cameron to the Hadley children.
1. Chapter 1

There was something about the ER that Cameron loved. Most Doctors hated the ER because it was either eerily empty or a frenzied mess of terror and panic. Come to think of it, it was almost the same as working in diagnostics; weeks of doing nothing then three days of sheer terror trying to diagnose a patient who's already slipped through dozens of Doctor's fingers. Cameron could see herself working in the ER after her fellowship with House. Cuddy was always looking for ER staff. Despite the raise in salary that came with an ER position, most people couldn't handle the stress. One (of a few) good thing about working for House was that you had to learn to deal with stress. If you were feeling good about your life, he would find a way to throw you off-kilter.

Today the ER was silent, but so was the third floor diagnostic office and Cameron was avoiding the packed clinic on principal. She was sick of doing House's hours for him. She figured she could be helpful down here, but the four other Doctors in the ER were all tending to a single leg gash, the nurses were gossiping behind the desk, a few interns were changing bedding on bed nine, and House was lying in bed five playing on his Gameboy. Cameron wondered if she should go back upstairs and help Foreman and Chase with House's paperwork, but she figured she should also avoid that on principal. She was sick of being House's secretary.

Cameron glanced at the door. The clock above said that it was nearing three thirty. Maybe she should just take off early. She was supposed to be off at five today, and had stayed an extra shift earlier in the week. She took a look at House wondering if she should ask him or just sort of wander out. She was kind of annoyed she had changed into Scrubs for nothing. She hated the starchy fabric and the fact that whatever bodily fluids they were supposed to protect her from either seeped through the material and made her skin sticky or ruined the shirt she wore under them.

"Doctor Cameron. Doctor House." Cameron turned to the nurse who had called her name.

"Yeah?" Cameron responded.

"Car crash, two victims, three minutes out. One possible DOA," The nurse repeated, phone still to her ear.

"Why can't one of them deal with it?" House asked, putting his Gameboy down.

"Doctor Cuddy asked me to assign everything that came in to you if you showed up." The nurse smirked. She hung up the phone and walked over to take his Gameboy. "She also wanted someone to bring this to her."

"Well, that's just an abuse of her power. Asking employees to steal. I should go have a chat with her and legal." House took his cane from the bed railing and shifted his bad leg off the bed first.

"I offered." The nurse replied smugly. Cameron smiled. House had called one of the nurses a maid last week and none of them had let him forget it since.

"Let's go House," Cameron said, tossing him a gown from the supply closet. He stopped to put it on and Cameron walked outside to the ambulance bay. She could hear the faint cry of sirens in the distance. She scanned the flat landscape in front of her trying to spot which direction the ambulance was coming from. She saw a flash of lights about half a mile away to the East and kept her eyes on the vehicle. She mentally prepared herself to jump into action as the ambulance pulled up.

She spotted one of the men before the car even stopped. She always hated how ambulance windows weren't tinted. No one wanted to see a human crime scene when driving behind an ambulance. It also seemed a bit like an invasion of privacy for the patient.

The driving Paramedic jumped out of the car and she helped him open the doors of the vehicle. The other Paramedic was on top of the man she saw through the window. He was pumping the man's chest with his arms. The driver helped pull the stretcher out of the car.

"Male, early fifties. No heartbeat. CPR's been given for nine minutes. No response," the Paramedic called without stopping his rhythms from on top of the man. Cameron looked him over. He was thin with a strong bone structure. Eyes that looked glazed over and lifeless, yet shockingly blue stared up into the air. His blue button down shirt had been torn open and his abdomen was more purple than tan. Lacerations across his left arms, face, and left leg left splotches of dried blood smeared across his clothes and skin. His nails were a deep shade of purple. He was dead.

"You can't stop. He's strong. He'll come back from this. He will," cried a male voice from inside the ambulance. The first paramedic rolled his stretcher out of the vehicle. The boy was strapped to the stretcher, but didn't appear to have any life threatening injuries. He looked exactly like his father. He too had cropped black hair, a sloped nose, and brilliant eyes. They boy was wearing a soccer uniform and the left side of his shirt was spattered with blood, most likely his father's. Cameron looked around wondering where House was.

"Let's go," she said grabbing the boy's stretcher and pulling him inside right behind the Paramedic and the older man.

"Cameron pushed the boy over to where House was standing, and ran back towards the man. She grabbed a vial from the table next to where the paramedic had put the guy and pushed back between the other Doctors who had flocked to him.

"I'm pushing epi," Cameron said, praying her initial assumption was wrong. She shoved the needle into the man's heart.

"Just call it Doctor," the paramedic sighed. He had stopped the CPR and climbed off of the man. Cameron's mind flashed to the man's son. She hated calling time of death but the man had been dead on arrival, and her epinephrine had done nothing but cause warm blood to spot his chest on the puncture site.

"Time of death three forty one in the afternoon," Doctor Greenfield called for her. The paramedic jotted down the time and walked away. Doctor Greenfield pulled a sheet over the man's face, and blood quickly soaked through in a few spots. Cameron glanced down at her own arms suddenly realizing the uncomfortable sticky feeling of blood on her arms. She sighed and pulled the curtain around the bed. She headed over towards the boy. House was sitting down talking to him as one of the interns performed an exam. The intern was pushing in different spots on the boy's abdomen.

"Nothing hurts. I'm fine," the boy insisted. Cameron looked expectantly at the intern.

"Daniel Hadley. Fifteen. No signs of internal bleeding. Superficial wounds on right leg. Possible fracture to the right foot. Possible head injury," the intern reported to her.

"I'm fine. How's my dad? He's okay right?" The boy asked. The realization that his dad's doctor was standing next to him quickly changed his facial expression. "Why aren't you over there?"

"Your Dad died on impact, Daniel." Cameron said slowly. She was good with kids and good at delivering bad news. However, she hadn't quite mastered combining the two. She had learned from House that straightforward tended to be the best when the kid was a teenager. "Do you have another family member we can call? Your mom?"

"You can't call her," Daniel said angrily. He sat up dismissing the intern who was still trying to examine his abdomen. "Someone needs to pick my sister up from soccer practice. You can't let a social worker tell her." The boy began to panic. The machine by his bed beeped rapidly. "She's just a kid."

"You need to calm down, _kid_." House stood up, looking at the heart rate monitor. He began to prepare a syringe of a sedative.

"No, no. I'm fine. You have to let me leave! I'm supposed to get her!" Daniel yelled, ripping the sensor from his finger. "I'll come back, okay? I promise."

"His pupils, Doctor." The intern looked at House wide eyed.

"Lay back down, you have a traumatic brain injury." House ordered. The boy shook his head, his eyes rolled up momentarily.

"He's sweating," the intern said. House waved a hand at him telling the intern to get lost.

"We need to call your mom and get consent for surgery. You're bleeding into your brain." House said calmly though loudly. He shoved the boy back so that he was lying down.

"You wont be able to reach her. She can't help." He spat. His speech was growing fuzzy. House glanced at Cameron. She shrugged. House shrugged back not caring how much liability the hospital had if he didn't get the mother's consent. Surgery was necessary though; consent or no consent, and they both knew it.

"Nurse, call OR two. Page neuro. We've got a brain bleed." House yelled across the ER. The nurse nodded and jumped at the phone. Two other doctors rushed over to help.

"My sister, Remy. She's at Plainsboro elementary. Fifth grade. Someone has to bring her here. I'm not having surgery until I see her," the boy yelled. He pushed off the monitor House had just put back on his finger. The machine by his bed was going crazy.

"Cameron, you heard the man," House said. Cameron stood frozen for a moment. "She'll be here when you wake up. In about two hours if you let us operate now. Or you can watch her from heaven as the bleed fills the space in your skull meant for your brain and it dies slowly, though – good news - not especially painfully," House said to the boy. Daniel looked over at Cameron expectantly.

"Yeah, okay. I can do that. I'll get her," Cameron agreed as the doctors began to wheel the boy out of the ER. He looked satisfied, scared out of his mind, but slightly more reassured by the prospect that his sister wouldn't be waiting on the curb outside of her school for the next few hours.

"Way to run those errands," House snickered at her, "and get the mom's number from the brat." Cameron rubbed her temples. This was way out of her job description…and possibly illegal.


	2. Chapter 2

Cameron was half way to her car before she realized that she was covered in blood. Well, she wasn't exactly _covered_, but she needed to change before showing up at an elementary school and insisting upon taking a child she'd never met. She glanced at her watch before walking quickly back inside toward the locker room. It was past four and as far as she knew most school ended some time around three. The poor girl was probably already panicking.

Pushing open the door to the locker room, Cameron searched through the closet for a fresh pair of scrubs. She figured they would make her look less like a loon, or maybe more if the school thought she was a psych patient. But, she had a badge to clear that up. Cameron pulled off her scrub top and tossed it on the bench in front of her locker. As expected, her long sleeve white shirt was stained with blood. It was sticking to her stomach in a few damp spots. Cameron eyed the showers before realizing that she didn't really have time for that. She pulled off the shirt and threw it next to the soiled scrub top. She pulled the towel from her locker and wiped her arms and stomach. Dried blood stuck to her in a few places, but what was wet quickly absorbed into the white towel. Cameron slipped on the new pink scrub top and grabbed her black jacket from her locker to put over it. It was getting to be late fall and she knew scrubs wouldn't quite be warm enough if she had to get out of her car. She glanced at her scrub pants and noticed a few spots of blood. She kicked them off, leaving her shoes on, and quickly put on the new pair. Grabbing her bag from her locker, and suddenly realizing she'd been halfway to her car without her keys, Cameron slammed the locker shut and picked up the dirty clothes. She tossed her white shirt in the trash, and the old scrubs into the designated bin, and headed back towards her car.

Daniel had said Plainsboro Elementary. Thankfully, she knew where that was. Cameron passed it every morning on her drive to work. Walking briskly through the parking lot, Cameron wondered what to say to the girl to get her into her car. 'Hi, Remy. Your brother asked me to get you. He's at the hospital. Oh and your dad's dead, but its cool there's a Gameboy you can have.' Nothing she could think of sounded quite right.

She decided she'd come up with what she was going to say on the spot as she headed over to the school. She fumbled with the climate control in her car. It was freezing.

Two turns later she pulled into the school parking lot. One girl remained seated on the steps in front of the school. Her head was buried in a notebook and she hadn't heard the car pull up. Considering the lot was empty, except a few cars in the staff section, Cameron left her car at the curb and got out.

"Remy?" She called to the dark haired girl on the steps. Her hair was lighter than her dad and brother's had been, but what were the chances this wasn't her? "Remy?"

Maybe higher than she'd imagined. The girl didn't respond. Cameron walked over so she was standing directly in front of the girl.

"Do you know where I can find Remy…" Cameron paused trying to recall the last name, "…Hadley." She remembered.

"Why?" The girl finally looked up with a wicked grin. The girl had brown eyes, a pointed nose, and a much larger build than the rather slender Hadley men that Cameron had met. If this was Remy Hadley she was either adopted or looked like her mother.

"Her family was in a car accident. I'm here from Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital." Cameron pointed to the badge pinned to her pocket.

"Poor baby," the girl laughed. "Was Mrs. Hadley behind the wheel?" Cameron had no idea why the girl found this so funny.

"No," Cameron answered. She looked around still seeing no one else. "Are you Remy?"

"God no, but I have been waiting for her. Check the bathrooms." The girl pointed behind her to the left.

"Thanks," Cameron said, wondering on a scale of one to pedophile how strange it was to walk into a public elementary school bathroom. She figured she would wait outside for the girl to come out. Cameron climbed the steps to the school and walked around the perimeter until she was in front of the grey door with the skirted stick figure. She paced for a few moments outside the door before realizing that she didn't even know if the girl was inside. Cameron pulled her phone from her bag. There were no messages from House, and it was almost five. Cameron knocked on the door. No answer. She pushed the door open gently and stepped inside. A small girl jumped back into the wall behind her.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Cameron threw her hands up. She mentally slapped herself though. That had to be the first thing most child predators say to kids.

"I thought you were someone else," the girl said, stepping out of the corner of the small room. "Is Stephanie out there still?"

"Stephanie?" Cameron asked, wondering if the girl thought she was a teacher.

"Light hair, dark eyes, evil?" the girl frowned. Cameron looked at this girl. Brown hair, stunning eyes, sloped nose, and she looked about ten, maybe eleven. She also had some blood smattered across her hands and a swelling left eye, which Cameron had only just realized weren't normal. She spent way too much time around sick people.

"Yes." Cameron nodded. "Are you Remy?"

"Mmhm." Remy nodded. "Who are you?" Remy seemed to suddenly realize that she was talking to a complete stranger, one who certainly wasn't a teacher.

"Your brother asked me to come get you. Your family was in a car accident." Cameron said. Remy nodded. "Are you okay?"

"Are they?" Remy asked, ignoring Cameron's question. Cameron slipped past Remy and grabbed some paper towels. She wetted them in the sink.

"I'm a Doctor," Cameron gestured towards her ID card and reached for the girl's hand. Remy pulled her hands back and recoiled back into the corner of the restroom.

"Who was in the car?" Remy asked again.

"Your dad and brother. I need to get you to the hospital and call your mom." Cameron took a step back from the girl. She figured she was frightening her.

"Are they okay?" Remy asked while taking the wet towels Cameron was holding out.

"Your dad didn't make it, but your brother is in surgery." Cameron looked at the ten-year-old.

"Of course," Remy mumbled, looking down at her hands. She slowly rubbed the wet paper towels against her knuckles watching the towels turn a sick shade of pink. Tears began to pour silently down her face.

"Is my brother going to be okay?" Remy asked, letting the towels slip through her hands. She began to cry harder. "He usually walks me home from Soccer. H-he's never late. I-I sh-should have known something happened."

"He should be out of surgery in the next hour." Cameron said, bending down to pick up the towels and throw them away. "We can get you cleaned up in the ER while you wait."

Remy nodded and glanced at Cameron's badge again. She wiped her eyes and managed to stop crying. Cameron held open the door. Remy stepped out and waited for Cameron to lead the way. Cameron noticed Stephanie still sitting on the steps. She wondered if she should offer the girl a ride home, but thought that may be weird. And, Remy had just called her evil.

"That's me," Cameron pointed to the car on the curb. Remy, who had been keeping her distance, neared closer to her as they approached the steps. Cameron wondered if Stephanie had beaten her up, but knew it was none of her business.

"Do you want to call your mom?" Cameron offered Remy her cell phone after stepping into her car.

"Later," Remy replied in a near whisper. Cameron could tell she was on the verge of tears again. She wanted to hug the child, but held herself back. She was a stranger.

"What happened to you?" Cameron couldn't help but ask.

"What do you think happened?" Remy's voiced cracked. She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to face the window.

"I'm sorry. I had a hard time in school too." Cameron lied. She didn't know why she said it, but she thought it might make the girl trust her. Cameron had breezed through elementary school. It was life post higher education that was kicking her ass.

Remy ignored her and Cameron just concentrated on the road. "Do you have a backpack or a coat we need to go back and get?" Cameron asked, realizing the girl had nothing but the athletic shorts and sweatshirt she was wearing.

"I left my bag in the bathroom." Remy said, her voice shook and without even looking at her Cameron knew she was crying. "I'm s-so stupid."

"No, it's fine. We can go back and get it." Cameron tried to make her feel better, but she knew Remy wasn't crying over a backpack. Cameron pulled into her parking spot and shut off the engine in her car. Remy was such a little ball of hurt and stress that this tiny thing had finally pushed her over the edge. Cameron turned to look at the now sobbing Remy. She had pulled her legs into her chest and was crying into her knees. She wasn't crying for her backpack. She was crying for her dad, and her brother, for being bullied at school, for her stinging eye, for being left at school for an extra two hours not knowing what was going on, for everything that had probably made today the worst day she would ever have.

"The guards will put it in the office before they lock the school...I can get it when I go back...I don't know why I'm crying...I'm sorry," Remy sniffled, composing herself and unbuckling her seat belt. She rushed towards the hospital. Cameron scrambled to keep up. It was as if Remy was trying to outrun her feelings.

"You have every right to be upset right now." Cameron caught up to her at the ER doors. The automatic glass doors swung open and Cameron walked in first.

"Where's my brother?" Remy looked around, wiping at her eyes. She pulled back her hands quickly after pushing too hard on her swollen eye.

"I'll ask. Why don't you go hop up on that bed right there," Cameron pointed to the first bed. A few people had trickled in since she left but all were being tended to already.

Cameron approached the nurse's desk. "Is Daniel Hadley out of surgery?" Cameron asked nurse Jeffrey.

"Let me check," Jeffrey said, grabbing a file from the other side of the counter. He flipped through it. "Room 201, shouldn't be awake for another hour or so though. But, surgery went well." Jeffrey read.

"Thanks," Cameron smiled. She grabbed a few things from the cabinet in by the desk and went back to bed one.

"Is he okay?" Remy asked. She had managed to stop crying, but her entire face was red and puffy.

"He did really well, but he's not awake yet. I'll take you to see him as soon as we clean you up." Cameron pulled out an antiseptic wipe from the kit. Remy shoved her hands into Cameron's and looked around anxiously.

"How long is this going to take?" she asked.

"Not long," Cameron assured her. Remy grimaced at the touch of the wipe to her raw hands. "Does anything else hurt?" Cameron asked. Remy shook her head.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, sounding shockingly like her brother. Cameron supposed neither would be fine for a long time though.


	3. Chapter 3

Standing in front of her locker, Cameron traded her purse for her lab coat and slammed the door shut. With a yawn, she fastened her ID badge to her lab coat pocket and exited the women's locker room. It was nine in the morning, so she had about a half hour before House would _probably_ come in. She figured she would go to the ER and see if there were any cases that House would consider accepting. So far she was on a one-day roll of avoiding House's clinic hours and she wanted to see if she could break her all time record of a week. She figured an actual case would probably help.

"Hey Brenda, got anything strange?" Cameron greeted House's least favorite nurse.

"Not especially." Brenda shrugged, grabbing for a stack of files. "Feel free to flip through these."

"Thanks," Cameron mumbled, accepting the stack and setting them down on the counter of the nurse's station. The first one was dehydration and the second was the flu, neither would interest anyone of higher rank than an intern. If she were a better person, she'd deal with them now and save some overworked ER doctor's some time, but she couldn't be bothered. The next two files were equally unpromising; a boy with fainting spells and a broken hip on an eighty-three year-old. Cameron grabbed for the last file praying for something interesting.

"Why's this file still down here?" Cameron asked, holding up the Hadley file to show Brenda.

"None of the paperwork's been signed yet so we can't technically treat him although he's been admitted." Brenda shrugged.

"…And treated. He's post-op." Cameron noticed, flipping through the surgical notes in the file.

"Boy said his mother was going to come in today when my shift started around six. He promised he'd send her over. I'm sure she'll turn up soon. It's still early." Brenda responded, while flipping through one of Cameron's rejected files.

"Who leaves their teenage son fresh out of brain surgery alone." Cameron rolled her eyes. She also wondered why the mother hadn't signed the forms last night. She had to have come in to at least take the little girl home and claim her husband's body.

"Some mother's have jobs, Dr. Cameron." Brenda said. Cameron wondered if she had offended Brenda. She didn't think the women had kids, but she really didn't know. Knowing how the nurses loved to exact revenge (or maybe they just all hated House) she figured she should apologize.

"Sorry," Cameron mumbled half-heartedly. She picked up the Hadley file and headed up to the third floor where the boy had been placed. If she couldn't find a new patient, the least she could do was a follow up.

Cameron reached a finger to hit the up arrow in front of the elevator, but the blunt end of a flaming cane hit it first. She turned around realizing House had finally arrived to work.

"Good morning," She greeted him. He looked like hell (as per usual). He wore a wrinkled band shirt with a wrinkled half-buttoned dress shirt over it. He had topped the look off with a navy sport coat and aviators. House gave her a small smile. He pulled off his sunglasses and tucked them into his pocket.

"I see you've brought me a present from the ER." He reached for the file, but Cameron held firm.

"Just a follow up," she dismissed his inquiry. The elevator arrived and he pushed ahead of her. _Cripples first_, she should have known. Cameron stepped in behind him, shaking her head.

"On who?" House asked, grabbing for the file again. Cameron handed it over this time and reached in front of him to hit the button for the diagnostic floor and for floor three.

"You think he has more errands?" House smirked.

"You're the one that told me to pick up the sister. You were being nice and so was I." Cameron frowned. She should have known that he would ask her to do something nice for a patient then give her shit for doing it.

"By all means, maybe he has dry cleaning." House handed back the file. "Get the mom, call social services if you have to, and then go downstairs and do my clinic hours."

"I'll see how this pans out," Cameron stepped off the elevator. "You should probably send Foreman."

"That would just be racist. Making the Black doctor do the women's work." House laughed as the doors to the elevator slipped shut again. Cameron sighed and headed to room 317. Through the glass doors she could see the boy flipping through his own chart with his sister asleep in the chair by his bed.

"Hi, Daniel." Cameron opened the sliding door. She tried to be quiet as to not wake his sister, "Your mom around?" she asked. If Remy was here the mom had to be somewhere.

"Around," He nodded. "What does all this mean?" He held up the clipboard. Cameron took it from him and glanced at the page.

"Just doctor stuff. You're not really supposed to be reading this." Cameron took the chart and placed it back on the back of his bed.

"Am I going to be okay?" He asked. "Like how long will I be in here for?"

Cameron looked at the file she had brought in. "Everything looks great. We like to keep surgical patients for a day or two just for monitoring, but you should make a full recovery."

"So, I could leave?" He asked. Cameron looked him over. What was this boy trying to do?

"In a day or two." She nodded. Cameron glanced over at Remy. Her right eye had swollen up and turned a nasty shade of purple. Her mother should have made sure she iced it, but it was too late now.

Cameron noticed she was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. "Your mom's not here is she?" Cameron asked, feeling a sinking sense of dread pass through her.

"She's on her way. Remy just didn't want to leave me last night. You know how little girls can be." Daniel brushed her off.

"Doesn't she have school?" Cameron asked, flipping through the file again. There were no signs of neglect. The boy was a healthy with no previous injuries.

"Our dad just died." Daniel was nonplused and Cameron suddenly felt like a jerk. Especially considering what she was going to have to say next.

"Look Daniel, you need to give me your mom's number or I'm going to have to call social services." Cameron said, feeling awful about threatening a teenager right out of surgery. She knew there was a mother somewhere. That girl at the elementary school had said something about her.

"She doesn't have a cell phone." Daniel's eyes darted around the room.

"You have a cell phone." Cameron raised an eyebrow.

"Look, she can't come in, okay? But why does she have to? I have health insurance. I'm not going to skip out on the bills." Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. He was beginning to get loud, and Remy was squirming in the chair.

"It's not about money. It's about the law. You're a minor." Cameron couldn't believe he wouldn't hand over her number. "I'm going to have to make that call."

"You can't! I have a mom. We're not orphans just yet." Daniel looked an odd combination of furious, devastated, and disoriented. Remy sat up and began to rub her face.

"Then the social worker will bring her here, and you have nothing to worry about," Cameron said, _except for pissing a few Doctors off_.

"What's going on?" Remy asked, looking up at Cameron recognizing her from yesterday.

"They need mom in here, bud." Daniel said to his sister.

"What?" she asked.

"Remy, will you give me your mom's phone number?" Cameron asked the little girl gently. Remy glanced over at Daniel. Neither responded to her.

"I'll be back," Cameron sighed. She should have left them alone and let a nurse handle this all. She hated calling social services. It tended to be a surefire way to piss patient's families off. She was all for it when it looked like it was necessary, but these kids didn't look like the type from bad homes. Though, she supposed abuse could come in all forms.

Cameron went over to the nurse's station on the floor and dropped the file down in front of her. She reached over the desk for the phone, but she felt a tap on her back. Placing the phone on the counter she turned around.

"You want to tell me how to reach your mom?" Cameron asked, spotting Remy.

"Please don't call social services, Dr. Cameron." Remy pleaded. "They'll split us up."

"What's going on at home?" Cameron asked.

"Nothing's going on at home," Remy answered. "Daniel is the best big brother on the planet. He walks me to and from school every day. He keeps me safe. We're a family."

"And where's your mom, Remy?" Cameron asked, vaguely remembering a mandatory seminar about communicating with pediatric patients that she had slept through. The one thing she remembered was calling the patient by their name…or maybe she got that from a law and order episode.

"She's across the street." Remy's hard face crumpled. "She's sick with Huntington's Chorea."

Cameron gulped. Now she felt truly awful. "She's at the hospice?"

"She can't come get us or sign any forms, but she's alive and we're fine. We don't need social services." Remy said. Cameron's heart broke for the girl, it really did. But, if anything, she now felt like she had to call more than ever. These kids really were alone. They shouldn't have to care for themselves, let alone for their mother too.

"Remy, you and your brother can't live alone. Social services does great things and I think they could make life a lot easier for you and your brother." Cameron said, "I really do have to call. We can't let your brother leave without a guardian."

Remy took in a deep breath. "Fine," she groaned before she turned around to leave. Cameron picked up the phone and dialed the number. She turned back towards the hospital. Remy was walking the wrong way.

"317, Daniel Hadley has no legal guardian. He's been lying about the mother. Can you get social services up here?" Cameron asked the closest nurse, holding out the ringing phone.

The nurse nodded and accepted the phone and file from Cameron. Cameron thanked her, and rushed off down the hallway. She spotted a now dressed Daniel and his little sister holding his hand. They were stepping into the elevator. Cameron wondered if she should call security, but figured she would be faster. She bolted for the stairs and rushed down the two flights towards floor one.

She stepped out of the stairwell and met the opening doors of the elevator.

"Nice try," she greeted the two kids. They both glared back at her. _If looks could kill_...


	4. Chapter 4

Cameron couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever felt more uncomfortable. _Nope_, she decided, and that was impressive considering she'd been on House's team for a few years now.

Both of the children looked as if they wanted to murder her, and the Foster Care Worker had just suggested that they go home with her.

"I work full time." Cameron choked out, not really sure how to respond to the ridiculous request.

"The kids are both of school age and you are a licensed foster parent." The social worker replied with a demeanor so calm that it made Cameron want to jump across the table and strangle her.

Cameron began tasting hints of copper, and realized she was practically biting through her lip. Could she say no now? She cursed the worker in her head for asking her in front of the kids.

A glance in their direction also made it unbelievably obvious that they didn't want to be going home with her.

"We have a home," Daniel frowned.

"And a parent," Remy added.

"I'm going to try my best to keep you both in Plainsboro, but without any close relatives in the area I'm going to need to look into Foster care until we can locate your next of kin." She responded. Cameron couldn't help but to wonder how they let her work with children; she didn't look the least bit friendly. Her scraggly black hair and pointed nose gave her a rather witch like appearance. Cameron suddenly realized she probably hated the woman about as much as the Hadley children hated her at the moment.

"What about emancipation?" Daniel asked.

"You can file for emancipation, but it's a process." The social worker explained. "You'll have to live somewhere as you petition the court."

"I don't want to go home with her." Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. Cameron looked over at him, but he refused to make eye contact.

"I can take you to the boys home in Plainsboro, but foster care is the easiest way for you to be able to stay with your sister." The social worker replied.

Remy looked up at Cameron. Something in her demeanor had changed and Cameron knew what it was. She was their only hope at staying together. Daniel still wouldn't make eye contact with her, but Remy was now silently pleading with her to say yes. Cameron couldn't resist someone in need. She just really hoped these kids didn't have a puppy or anything.

"I can take them." Cameron tried not to sigh. She knew she wasn't their first choice, but she didn't want them to know that they weren't hers. She waited to hear Daniel object, but he kept his lips shut. Cameron watched his face for any sign of emotion. He glanced up at her quickly before returning his eyes to his lap.

"So you both will go with Dr. Cameron tonight and I will be in contact with you about more permanent placement in the next few days." The social worker smirked. The few days comment terrified Cameron. What was she supposed to do with these kids for the next "few days"? And what the hell did few days means? Like two or three or like five? Cameron shot the social worker a terrified look and was received with a smile. She had gotten exactly what she wanted out of the three. Cameron had been played.

"I assume I have some paperwork to sign." Cameron said, trying to speed things along. She needed to get away from the woman. Although, she had no idea what she would do after this meeting. What was she supposed to do with these kids while she was working? She was technically on the clock.

"Of course," the social worked stated as if Cameron was dumb for asking. _I wasn't curious. I was trying to get you to hurry the fuck up_, Cameron wanted to scream. The social worker pushed a few forms from in front of her towards Cameron. Cameron flipped through them before signing her name to the bottom of each and filling in her contact information.

When she was done, the social worker left with a promise of a home visit and Cameron found herself sitting across from two confused faces.

"Thanks," Daniel mumbled, not looking her in the eyes. He didn't say it very enthusiastically, but he clearly meant it. The boy knew that Cameron had saved him from being split up with his sister, and it actually meant a lot to Cameron that he had acknowledged it.

"Yeah," Remy added, grabbing her brother's hand.

"I know I'm not your first choice, but you guys couldn't have stayed alone. It wouldn't have been fair to put that responsibility on you." Cameron said, trying to be gentle in tone. Neither responded to her.

"Alright then," she said feeling awkward, "Daniel, lets get you back in bed. You're still a patient here." In fact, he looked a bit pale.

Daniel nodded and stood up. He seemed a little too stunned with the massive turn of events from the last two days to be able to fight Cameron anymore. He led the way to his room, his sister still not letting go of his hand. Cameron followed them and tried to figure out what she would do about the fact that she now had two kids staying with her. It was only emergency placement, so they might only be with her for one night, but it could also turn into a few weeks, _or even months_, she tried to ignore the last thought running through her mind_._

She had become a licensed foster parent when her own brother had gotten married, in case something happened within her own family. But she never actually imagined having children placed with her. On a good week, she worked fifty hours and on a bad one she could spend three nights in a row in the Doctor's lounge.

It was a good thing both kids seemed more than willing to be responsible for themselves, but Cameron knew it wasn't really fair what they were having to go through. A fifteen-year-old shouldn't have to take care of a ten-year-old. Watching Daniel climb back into bed, Cameron wondered if he had been tested for his mother's illness. It was a fifty percent chance that he also had Huntington's chorea, so most likely he or his sister had the gene. They were an all too devastating scene.

"What?" Daniel asked, noticing Cameron's stare.

"I'll leave you with my pager, home, and cell number." Cameron said, scribbling the three numbers out on a piece of paper and putting them next to his bed. "You'll be here for the next day or two. I'll be in the hospital and I'll come by, of course, but in case you need to reach me."

"Thanks," he said, glancing at the numbers. He suddenly looked exhausted.

"Honestly, whenever. Even if it's the middle of the night, call." Cameron said.

"I will." He nodded. "What about Remy?"

"What about me?" Remy asked. She had climbed into his bed and was sitting next to where he was laying. Cameron didn't really know.

"Well, you can't spend the night here again." Cameron tried to joke, but she ended up sounding stern. "I was thinking in a few hours we could go get lunch then maybe pick up some of yours and your brother's stuff from your house."

Remy thought it over and looked at her brother. "Okay," she replied, shakily. "Can I sleep at home?" she asked.

"No. You'll be coming home with me, but we can go get anything you need." Cameron said.

"Can you bring me a change of clothes, my laptop, and my blue coat, Rem?" Daniel asked.

She nodded. Daniel sat up in bed, and reached over her to open the drawer in the table by his bed. Inside were two plastic bags. One with the possessions he had on him when he was admitted and the other with the possessions that were on his father. Daniel grabbed a ring of keys from the second bag, before quickly shutting the drawer. Remy watched intensely, not taking her eyes from the drawer even after it was closed.

"Be careful with these," Daniel said, taking Remy's hand in his own and giving her the keys.

"Can I stay here a little bit longer?" Remy asked, finally tearing her eyes from the drawer and looking at Daniel rather than Cameron.

"Yeah," Cameron nodded, she didn't really know what else to do with the ten-year-old. She couldn't exactly just drop her off at school dirty, dressed in two-day-old clothes, and freshly scathed from her father's death.

"Thank you," Daniel said, giving Cameron a weak smile.

"I'll come by in a few hours to take you out," Cameron mumbled before exiting the room. She could tell the siblings wanted to be alone. She also felt like they probably wouldn't try to run again, but even if they did, every nurse on the floor knew to watch out for them now.

Turning the corner and heading back towards diagnostics, Cameron nearly smacked into House.

"And where the hell have you been?" The cranky doctor asked, giving her a death glare that gave the Hadley children's a run for their money.


	5. Chapter 5

Remy stared through the glass doors of her brother's room. She watched the doctors and nurses rushing around and wondered what it would be like to have responsibility over other people's lives. It didn't seem fair considering she wasn't even allowed to be in charge of her own life.

She saw Dr. Cameron rush by and turned around to face her brother. Dr. Cameron was nice enough in person, but she was proving to be Remy's own angel of death. Every time the blonde haired doctor appeared, Remy's life got significantly worse. Or maybe that was just the pattern of her life. Everything had been going well until about two years ago. First her mom started acting funny, then the kids at school started picking on her, then it turned out her mom was sick, then she had to be moved into a nursing home, then things were just starting to work out at home with her dad learning to cook and her brother bringing her to and from school, and then yesterday happened. Cameron had shown up at school and her dad was dead. Cameron had shown up in her brother's room and now they were foster kids.

Remy looked over at her brother. He was all she had left. She didn't have her dad. Her mom was just a ghost haunting the background of her life. She wasn't allowed to live at home. She couldn't care less about school or any friends she used to have. Daniel was it. He was all she needed, but looking at the way his lips twitched as he slept and listening to the machines around him beeping, she knew he could be taken away too. Remy grabbed onto his hand, the fresh scabs over her own knuckles stinging from the movement, and snuggled closer to him in bed. His whole body twitched and she felt her stomach turn.

Remy looked around the room nervously. She had to go to the bathroom, but she didn't want to leave her brother. The way his face was moving it looked like he was having a nightmare and Remy knew a thing or two about those. She didn't want him to wake up alone, but what were the chances he'd wake up in the two minutes she was gone.

Finally, she placed a kiss on his cheek and slipped out of his bed. She exited through the glass doors and went down the hallway to find the bathroom. Pushing through the swinging door, she entered the bathroom and caught sight of herself in the mirror. Under the florescent lights she looked like a mess. Her hair was matted down, her clothes were wrinkled from sleeping in them, and the skin around her eye was a deep purple with faded yellow edges. She felt her chin quiver and quickly turned away. She wanted to be in her dad's arms. He would have held her just right, put an ice pack over her eye and told her that one day karma would bite Stephanie in the behind. Her eye burned as tears began to form. She couldn't let her own mind bring her down. She had bigger things to worry about.

Remy quickly finished up in the bathroom and headed back towards her brother's room. The hallway seemed even more frantic than before. Doctor's were running past her and into one of the glass rooms ahead. Upon getting closer, Remy realized it was her brother's room they were rushing into. She sprinted through the doors. His whole body was shaking and Remy was pretty sure from all the TV she watched that this was a seizure.

She pushed herself into the back of the room so she could see her brother as the doctor's held onto him and put more drugs into the tubes around his bed. She caught sight of Doctor Cameron rushing through the hallway and felt her stomach twist again. Her brother finally stopped moving, but his head jerked forward and blood began seeping through the bandages on his head and pouring through his mouth.

One of the nurses tried to push her away, but Remy fought against the hands grabbing at her without taking her eyes off her brother. Even more doctors came into the room and her vision of Daniel became obscured by their heads and her own tears. She couldn't quite see what was going on, but she could see blood, a lot of blood. She felt her breath catch in her throat and her chest began to burn. Blood dripped from the metal handrails on the bed onto the shiny white floor. Each droplet falling from the bed seemed to pull tiny pieces of her own will power from her. She realized how exhausted she was and finally stopped fighting as a nurse carried her out of the room and into the hallway. He placed her down on a bench in the still frenzied hallway. Remy turned around, curtains had been drawn inside the glass room and she wasn't able to see what was going on in her brother's room. The images of his face smeared with blood filled her mind. She hugged her knees into her chest and tried to calm down her erratic breathing. She looked in front of her and saw the male nurse watching her closely and a whirlwind of activity behind him.

He pulled a stethoscope from around his neck and tried to place the metal circle on her chest. Remy batted it away and put her head between her knees again. She could see doctors and carts of medicine and gurneys whizzing by all around her and it was too much. This was all too much. She wanted to tell him that she was fine, but she was too out of breath for that.

Her chest began making the whistling noise that it did when the situation had gone too far for her to be able to control by herself. She needed an inhaler. The nurse hearing the wheezing took off towards nearby cart and came back with one. He handed it to her and she quickly used it twice in a row.

She handed it back to him and put her head back between her knees. She felt her breathing go back to normal, but her heart was pounding even harder in her chest. This always happened after using her asthma medication. She probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight either.

"Are you okay?" The nurse asked, using a hand to tilt up Remy's face so she was looking at him. Remy nodded. "Do you have a history of asthma?"

Remy nodded again.

"Do you carry a rescue inhaler with you?" He asked. Remy looked around. The hallway seemed to have cleared. Everything seemed a lot less frantic.

"It's in my backpack." Remy finally spoke, her throat dry and scratchy.

"Alright." The nurse said. "Are you Remy Hadley?" She nodded. "I'm going to call Dr. Cameron over to make sure you're okay. Does that sound all right? Can you wait here for us?"

Remy felt her heart beat rise again. That did not sound all right. She nodded so the nurse would go away though. He gave her a light smile and rushed down the hallway. Remy stood up and went back into her brother's room. The curtains were still pulled, but the room was empty. The bed sheets were soaked with blood and the machines were silent. There was blood on the floor, on the side of the bed closest to the door, and one of her brother's pillows had fallen under the bed. The white casing was slowly absorbing the thick red liquid.

Remy panicked. Daniel was gone and she didn't know where he was. She didn't know if he was even alive. She sat down on the cold floor between the bed and the wall. She would stay here until they brought her brother back. He couldn't be dead. She had just stepped out to use the bathroom. She felt tears pour down her face and she hugged her knees again, pressing her closed eyelids against her legs. She would stay here, eyes shut, curled into a ball until Daniel came to get her.


	6. Chapter 6

Cameron sat at the end of the long glass table trying to glare holes through House's white board.

_Excessive Caring_. House had written.

_Bastard with a bum leg_. Cameron wanted to write. If only he'd let her touch his pen.

Cameron had just been charged with signing consent papers for Daniel Hadley to have emergency surgery to quell the swelling in his brain. There wasn't really any other option, but being his medical proxy put everything into perspective. He could die and she could be responsible. Sure patients had died, and she'd been responsible as a doctor, but as a guardian everything seemed different. She had every right to care right now, and House was a bastard for annoying her about it. He got her into this mess in the first place.

She stared up at House, considering giving him a piece of her mind which he would inevitably ignore or use as evidence to prove that she had some sort of pathological problem. But House was watching something else. She spun around in her chair just in time to see nurse Jeffrey arriving.

"Whatever the hell you think I did, I probably did. But Cuddy will fuck you before she fires me." House stated with the type of nonchalance generally reserved for Wilson's actual problems. Nurse Jeffrey raised his eyebrows and dramatically turned to Cameron.

"You need to check on the Hadley kid." He said, shooting House the occasional glare.

"I just signed the surgical consent forms a minute ago." Cameron sighed. What could have gone wrong in the ten seconds she'd been sitting in the office for?

"Other Hadley. She had an asthma attack. I gave her a rescue inhaler, but I can't examine her without you." Jeffrey said.

"I'll take care of it." Cameron nodded. She thanked him and left the office. He didn't follow and Cameron wondered if he and House were going to have it out. He'd been openly trying to get House fired for, well, about a week less than the amount of time he'd been working at the hospital.

Reaching the patient's rooms, Cameron realized she should have asked Jeffrey where Remy actually was. But she figured checking in her brother's room would be a safe first bet. Cameron wondered if perhaps she should have put her in the doctor's lounge or something. It may have been irresponsible of her to just leave the girl alone, but she had been a bit overwhelmed by, well, everything.

At first glance into the room, she thought it was empty, and in bad need of janitorial service. Then she noticed Remy hugging her knees in the corner of the room. She was eerily silent and looked utterly traumatized. Though it wasn't surprising given the situation.

"Hey Remy, I heard you're having some trouble breathing." Cameron kneeled down in front of the girl.

Remy looked up before quickly scrambling back towards the wall. Cameron took a step back. She was clearly scaring the girl, but she wasn't sure why.

"What's going on?" She asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

"He's dead isn't he?" Remy asked, trying to push herself further into the wall.

"Your brother?" Cameron asked, when Remy didn't respond she continued. "He's in surgery right now."

"Are you sure?" Remy finally made eye contact.

"Why don't I double check. Will you let me examine you when I come back?" Cameron asked. Remy thought about it for a moment.

"Can that man just do it?" She asked. Cameron thought about that for a second. As an immunologist, this was close to her specialty. Additionally she was female and currently legally in charge of Remy. She supposed that for something as simple as this Nurse Jeffrey would do perfectly fine, but she wasn't thrilled with it.

"I'll go check on your brother." Cameron stood up. She quickly found Jeffrey stomping back towards the nurse's station.

He looked angry, but Cameron hoped he would calm down when he realized he still had job duties. She gently touched his shoulder to get his attention.

"What?" He snapped as he turned to face her. Cameron shot him a look. "Sorry." His cheeks went pink.

"Could you please do the exam on Remy Hadley? She seems to feel comfortable around you." Cameron couldn't believe she was saying that. From what she could tell the man had about the same bedside manner as House.

"No problem." He nodded.

"Do you think you could get her into a different room or maybe the clinic?" Cameron added. Jeffrey nodded in understanding. "Thank you."

They parted ways and Cameron made her way towards the OR to see how Daniel Hadley was doing. He had only been in surgery for maybe fifteen minutes, but she figured the walk would give her a few moments to clear her head.

This was the first time she'd felt so out of her element in the teaching hospital. Besides for, of course, the first few weeks of learning to deal with House. But while House was one serious mess, this was much more complicated. She had no idea how sick this boy was, how traumatized this girl was, and how long "a few days" would last. Additionally, there were funeral arrangements, probate courts, a mother dying across the street, and school. She'd only ever dealt with two things on that list, and both had been a long time ago.

Trying to keep herself from remembering the last and only funeral she'd been in charge of, Cameron rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants and pushed open the door to the gallery.

She took a seat in the front row and peered down at the surgery. It was still going on, so he was definitely alive, but Cameron knew only slightly more than the average Grey's Anatomy fan when it came to neurosurgery. She peaked around at the interns watching the procedure.

"What's going on with the brain bleed?" She asked. The interns looked between each other. "This isn't a test. He was my patient."

"It looks pretty extensive, but nothing unusual." One of the interns shrugged.

"Chances of a full recovery?" Cameron asked.

"Highly likely if Ryan doesn't screw it up." Another intern laughed. Cameron bit her lip to keep from scolding them. She knew they were just laughing at each other, which was almost necessary in such a stressful program, but she was genuinely worried.

"Thanks, guys." Cameron said, ducking out of the room. A few mumbled good-byes before the door swung shut. Cameron walked slowly back towards the clinic, hoping Jeffrey had talked Remy into moving. While watching surgery with interns wasn't quite her idea of a morning well spent, she wasn't sure where babysitting sat comparatively.

Entering the clinic, Cameron spotted Remy sitting in one of the waiting chairs. She looked thoroughly unhappy and was ignoring the lollipop in her hand and magazine on her lap. She was just staring at the clock.

Cameron approached the nurse's station first. "How is she?"

Jeffrey spun around in his chair and handed Cameron a file. "All is good. Can you give me a quick signature?"

Cameron skimmed the file and signed it. "Thanks, Jeffrey." He smiled politely before moving the file into its proper stack. Cameron glanced at her watch. It was nearing twelve-thirty.

"Hey, Remy. I'm glad to hear everything is okay." Cameron approached. Then she froze, needing to mentally hit herself for that comment. Nothing was okay.

"Me too." Remy deadpanned, closing the magazine she hadn't been reading.

"Your brother is doing well." Cameron said, knowing it was what Remy was waiting on and probably the only way make their conversation less awkward.

"Can I see him?" Remy perked up. For the first time since Cameron had met her, it looked like there was light behind her eyes.

"He's not going to be out of surgery for a little while. I was thinking maybe we could go over to your house and then pick up some lunch." Cameron sat in the chair next to her.

"I don't want to leave here." Remy pulled her knees up to her chest. The light quickly fading.

"I think your brother would appreciate it if we brought him back some of his stuff from home for when he woke up." Cameron tried. This seemed to look a little better.

"You're sure he wont wake up while we're out?" Remy asked. Cameron's gut reaction was to chuckle, but she held back. Daniel Hadley would not be regaining consciousness for several hours, if it were to even happen today.

"There's no way." Cameron squeezed Remy's arm. "He wont be out of surgery for a few hours and then it will take some time for him to fully wake up. He's going to feel a little weird after having his brain operated on."

"But he'll be okay?" Remy asked. Cameron gulped. Rule number one was never to promise surgical outcomes.

"Unless something new crops up, he should be fine." Cameron said, wondering if she had chosen the right words. Remy eyed her skeptically.

"Perhaps we should leave the hospital." She finally said.


End file.
